In The Opening

In the opening of Riding Giants, a documentary now in theaters that chronicles big-wave surfing, Laird Hamilton takes the measure of Jaws, a 60-foot swell off the coast of Peahi, Hawaii. Watching him in that adrenaline-drenched moment, you just might get a rush of your own. Director Stacy Peralta (Dogtown and Z-Boys) uses awesome archival surfing footage to tell the story of three men who find supreme pleasure in trying to tame the sea. Greg (the Bull) Noll, now 67, is a stocky Californian who headed to Hawaii in the 1950s and caught a swell during the 20th century's biggest monsoon. Jeff Clark, 46, discovered Mavericks, the frigid, black, shark-infested waters of Half Moon Bay, Calif., in 1975, and surfed them alone for 15 years. But it's Hamilton, 40, who revolutionized the sport in the early 1990s by using a personal watercraft to tow-in to huge waves like those at Jaws. Riding Giants ends with Noll choking up while describing his 25-year relationship with Waimea Bay, proving once again that love stories make compelling cinema.